If you’ve ever listened to Google CEO Larry Page speak, you can’t help but notice his voice sounds a little unusual. There is a very good reason for that, and it’s one Page has decided to come out and explain due to a recent illness that has made it worse.

Larry Page is suffering from vocal cord paralysis. It first started when he was just 14 years old and suffered from a bad cold. Everyone’s voice can sound different when they are ill, but once fully recovered Page’s voice didn’t recover as expected and remained what he describes as “weaker.” Tests carried out by a doctor confirmed he had left vocal cord paralysis. That means the cord still moves, but not as you’d expect.

It was unclear at the time if there was some relationship between the bad cold and the paralysis occurring. It could have just been coincidence and there was no confirmation of the cause from Page’s doctors.

This all happened 25 years ago, but last year Page’s voice got worse again, and for exactly the same reason. He got a bad cold again, his voice was affected, and it never recovered. But this time it was his right vocal cord that had been paralyzed. This has resulted in his voice becoming much softer, and accounts for why we haven’t seen him doing much work in front of a camera or involving lots of talking lately.

It turns out vocal cord paralysis or paresis is very rare and there isn’t much in the way of information or treatments to improve the condition. So Larry Page has decided to take action and is funding a research program headed up by Dr. Steven Zeitels from the Harvard Medical School. It is hoped this research will not only increase our understanding of paresis, but also lead to new treatments for those who suffer with it.